A Voice For The Fans ~ A Fan's View Of The State Of The Sport

I
bid you welcome gentle readers, and NASCAR, I do believe you’ll want to have
someone reading every word of this one. We wouldn’t want you to miss it. We’ll
be discussing some diverse topics today, so let’s start out with our diagram of
SAFER barriers as it relates to the big track in Brooklyn Michigan.

At
first blush, that looks sadly lacking, but giving credit where due, Roger
Curtis, President of Michigan International Speedway, was among the very first
to step up and promise “reform” in the wake of the injuries sustained by Kyle
Busch in the Xfinity race at Daytona last February. Partial content from Mr.
Curtis’ statement follows:

“Steel and
Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) will be added to pit in and pit out walls and
tire pack barriers will be installed at the angled wall inside Turn 1.
Additionally, the infield at the exit of pit road will be paved to function as
a skid pad and pace car vehicle entry and exit. Upon the conclusion of the
August NASCAR weekend and installed in time for the 2016 racing season,
Michigan International Speedway will add SAFER to outside walls on the
frontstretch and backstretch as well as the pit tri-oval wall.”

As
I keep reminding you gentle readers, Google maps are wonderful, but they are
not updated on a daily basis. After all, we’re talking about the entire world
here. I didn’t get an imagery date on this one, but in every case, I do my best
to see what’s been done or promised at each track this year. In this case,
Michigan would appear to be among the best in response and promised further
additions in the near future. Don’t disappoint me Roger. We, the fans that
care, are counting on you, and thanks for your timely response to such a
serious situation. We appreciate it, as I’m sure do our drivers.

Now
then, completely switching gears, during the weekend at Pocono, we heard our
elite team of professional broadcasters… their words, not mine… repeatedly
telling us what track each of the three turns at the Triangle Track was
patterned after. Maybe it was just the constant repetition of something that
was fine the first time, tolerable the second, but lost all credibility at
about telling #4. Still, upon hearing it so many times in succession, something
dawned on me that in all my years of racing and the many times we visited
Pocono, I had not realized until now. The three tracks from which Doc Joe
“borrowed” a corner are:

Turn
1 = Trenton

Turn
2 = Indianapolis

Turn
3 = Milwaukee

Do
you notice anything strange there? Did you ever think about the fact that those
three tracks form the acronym “TIM?” Those of us that have been around the sun any
considerable number of times will see a great significance in that. I can’t
watch a race at Pocono without my mind silently looking for a red car with the
#25 on its door. Above that door of course, was the name Tim Richmond, the
absolute master of racing what they now like to call the “Tricky Triangle.”

It’s
always told that Pocono is really a road course with all left-hand turns. Tim
Richmond went a long way toward proving that, as 9 of his 13 wins in his short
career came at Riverside, Watkins Glen and of course, Pocono. Doc Joe [Mattioli] knew Tim Richmond, but not until the track had
been there for several years, so he didn’t plan it to come out that way. Still,
it could make one wonder if some higher power might have been guiding the hand
of the good dentist as he patterned his track after that particular trio of
very old tracks. Now that I’ve become aware of that tiny fact, I shall forever
be reminded as I watch races at the big ol’ triangle that its corners equal
TIM, just as I find constant reminders still today of the shabby and disgusting
way that Tim was treated by NASCAR. If you’ve never read or heard that whole
story, it can be
found by clicking here.Tim… Rest in Peace… we know the truth now.

Now
my darlings, we leave the past behind and move to the unpleasant present. For a
week now, we’ve heard about this “drivers’ council” thing, and as feared, the
more I hear, the less I like, mainly because the more I hear, the less I
believe. Folks in my social circle, which is quite large when everyone wants a
say, all seem to be playing a bit of “Can you top this?” with tales of who
started the thing to begin with… who had the idea first. For what it’s worth, I
really don’t think it makes a furry little rat’s behind whose idea it was, but
my vote goes to Brian Z. France, and Mr. France… Brian… I think you’ll want to
read this next part; you won’t like it, but I hope it hits home.

My
guess, and it’s an educated one, is that the new council is an attempt to
placate not only the drivers, but those owners that have formed a much more
meaningful Alliance than any little get-together NASCAR might share with the
drivers. Yes, it’s the drivers that go out and lay their lives on the line for
the enrichment of you and your family, but in your eyes, they don’t count
because they contribute nothing by way of actual cash to your coffers. You probably
don’t have any real sense that they are needed. They’re there, so you tolerate
them. Your track record says that no matter what the situation, as long as you
reign, the game is played by your rules, and yours alone.

The
owners, however, are the ones that spend the money, and someone that has your
ear has explained to you that if they were to stop spending it, you would be
out of business in an instant, for we all know you wouldn’t spend a cent of
your own to promote business, sport or whatever. That is the down side of
allowing 5 or 6 people to control most of the cars that go out to race on any
given Sunday. You’ve also allowed them the possibility of being able to affect
a hostile takeover, though not in the usual way, since there is no stock in
NASCAR. There is money though Sir, and it comes from those owners. You’ve
figured out now that you have to placate them, or at least seem to. The drivers
work for the owners, so they become a part of the game, though a much lesser
part.

Can
all that’s gone wrong be made right? Perhaps, but you wouldn’t like the remedy,
Brian. About now, I was going to ask you to allow me to give you a fan’s take
on all this, but it’s my column and I don’t need your permission, so here goes…

A Fan’s Look at the
State of the Sport

Attendance
at every track continues to sink to new levels, and those of us with vision
have no need for distorted attendance figures to understand what we see with
our own two eyes. The more empty seats the tracks tear out, the more appear, as
if by magic. How long before all of them are empty? Not too much longer.

Television,
that medium that you somehow conned into paying $8.2 Billion for 10 years of
showing those empty seats, has a rating system that shows NASCAR in the toilet,
quite literally. This past weekend, my beloved Pocono lost viewers in double
digits… 18% fewer viewers than TNT pulled in last year. TNT for Pete’s sake!
The Yugo of Sports TV! It was almost understandable that FS1 would not live up
to the ratings on the Mothership, FOX, but TNT? Abandon all hope!

When
you took the wheel of this sinking ship Sir, NASCAR was the #2 watched sport in
the country. Today, it isn’t even on the chart. With that in mind, I’d say the
state of this sport is the state of depression. But wait! Can this even be
called a sport in any meaningful way? Over the years, it changed from a sport
to a “Show”, but now it’s given up the pretense of even being a show. It's a
business, pure and simple. Everything and everyone else is merely that
"tool" we spoke of last week.

What
we're seeing isn't racing. It's not a show, since no one is coming or tuning
in. It's not a sport, because everything that made it a sport... competition,
fair rules, incentive to win, etc., has all been taken away and in its place we
find managed races, managed points and managed wins, laced with gimmicks at
every turn. Are we having fun yet?

In
Brian France’s own words, what we're seeing is a "product." That
would be a product that he solely owns and is offering for sale. I'd guess that
is a fair definition of a business, so what we're seeing is a business that has
nothing to do with racing or sport.

He
sees NASCAR, aka himself, as the defender of said business, but he sees
"stakeholders" that we would call drivers and race teams as the
enemy. All of his business "guns" or rules, as we lowly fans might
call them, are aimed at those drivers and those teams. He is playing his own
little games in his own little mind, and nothing else matters. He WILL win,
"because he can."

For
years I've called it a circus, with him as the ringmaster; that no longer
rings true. Oh, he's made it a circus alright, but now it's the clown that's
running it. Nowhere in any circus has that ever been the case, and the results
here will fail to be amusing. Laugh clown, laugh!

Despite
indications from both drivers and owners that the incessant changing of rules…
especially those that deal with the actual configuration of our IROC style
cars… is costing exorbitant amounts of money and further separating the haves
from the have-nots of the racing world, this is what Brian had to say over the
past weekend:

"Well,
we're not done yet. That's the number one thing. I realize it's easy to say,
'Well, stay where you are. Things were pretty good.' But our job is to make them
better and have closer, tighter racing, where some teams that don't have the
budget of the size of some of the bigger teams have a better shot to win and
compete. That's what we're trying to do. Are we happy? We're never happy
because whatever package that we come with, the drivers and teams are trying to
game that package and gain an advantage on that. That's what they do. They're
great at it. But my sense of it is we'll be coming with some things that just
keep marching toward our goal of tighter, closer, lower-cost racing, and that's
what our fans want."

So,
he sees it as a war; a war between NASCAR and the very people that have made it
what it was, until the coming of Brian. He just doesn’t get it, gentle readers.
Certainly, there are rivals in business. Nike and Adidas are business rivals,
but neither goes head to head against their workers on the line. Everyone works
together to build the best sneakers on the court, in the gym, on the road and
everywhere else. Instead of seeing the race teams as the enemy, perhaps a lot
more time should be spent working with them to reclaim the lofty perch NASCAR
once enjoyed in the world of sports.

When
it’s all said and done, whether we’re speaking of sneakers or races, it is the
customer who pays, and in doing so becomes the one that holds the power to make
or break any business. In sports, we refer to that customer as a fan, and the
end product being offered is the race itself. Manipulating the races through
constricting and oft-times senseless rules… thousands of them, dealing into
minute portions of inches, does nothing to improve the racing. Messing up those
precious aerodynamics that persistently increase “aero-push”, better known as
the inability to pass, would serve far better. That is not an opinion; that is
a fact.

Gentle
readers, your scribe could keep adding additions to this article until it’s
description would change to “book”, but instead, let’s do our Classic Country
Closeout, and then let’s hear from you… you, the fans; the customers of NASCAR,
as it were. Are you a fan of the business? If so, tell us about it. Are you, as
I suspect, a fan of racing and don’t care one whit about the business side or
who makes how many $ Millions? Tell us about that too. Sound off, gentle
readers! This is your chance to be heard, and I promise you, this column will
be read by many in the NASCAR chain of command. Someone might even read it to
Brian France.

And
now, for some good ol’ Country Music…

Well,
that sentence led me right into the perfect song with which to begin the
Closeout today. This one is called “Hillbilly Fever”, and is the original
release of the song, sung by that yodeling master, Kenny Roberts. Please enjoy:

This
is “Hillbilly Fever #2” by that awesome duo, Red and Ernie… Foley and Tubb, that is. It’s a rewrite especially for the pair by songwriter
Vaughn Horton. Both songs, along with a cover of the original by Little Jimmy
Dickens were released back in 1950

Same
song, very different words… and beat. This one is by Jerry Lee Lewis. Get ready
for some shakin’!

No
one was funnier on stage than Tex Ritter, but on this song, he gets pretty
serious, and the result will bring a tear to the eye of any true Country fan.
Here is Tex, with his version of “Hillbilly Heaven.”

Then,
a couple of decades later, Whispering Bill Anderson recorded an updated version
of the same song, noting so very many familiar names that were no longer with
us. Let your heart break a bit as you hear the names listed in both versions.
This one was titled “Country Music Heaven”, as it was done in a time when it
was no longer “Politically Correct” to use the term “Hillbilly.” Yes, progress
is everywhere… and taking us nowhere.

Be
well gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you!

The thoughts and ideas expressed by this writer or any other writer on Race Fans Forever are not necessarily the views of the staff and/or management of Race Fans Forever. Race Fans Forever is not affiliated with NASCAR or any other motorsports sanctioning body in any form..